Adjournment- PANDA Week
I raised the awareness of the annual PANDA Week across Australia as it is so near and dear to my heart. PANDA is an acronym for Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Awareness and, in 2019, the theme for the week (which runs from 10th to 16th November) is “let’s get real”. It’s a theme which aims to focus the minds of all Australians on the reality that perinatal anxiety and depression are common and serious. Indeed, as a measure of exactly how common they are, it’s worth noting that around 1 in 5 new or expecting mothers and up to 1 in 10 new fathers are likely to suffer from anxiety and/or depression within the period from a child’s conception to 12 months after their birth.
